From One's Nature
by Onimiman
Summary: Continuing in the same continuity as Jacen Solo: On the Right Path and The Life of Scum, the Lost Tribe of the Sith are finally introduced... and they're not off to a good start.
1. Chapter 1

For five thousand years, the Lost Tribe of the Sith had thrived on Kesh, a world too far out of the way in the galaxy for even criminal enterprises, such as the Hutts or independent smugglers or pirates, to take notice or advantage of. Originally thrown out of lightspeed thanks to a hyperjump error caused by her sister ship _Harbinger_, the Sith Dreadnaught _Omen_ and all her on-board crew had crash-landed on Kesh, stranded and abandoned by Naga Sadow's Sith Empire, which would crumble into ruins long before the days of Darth Bane's implementation of the Rule of Two.

But what would become the Lost Tribe did not languish and die; following that fateful crash, Captain Yaru Korsin and his stranded crew came across the local Keshiri, a purple-skinned humanoid race that had mistaken the crew as gods. Captain Korsin and his shipmates took advantage of the Keshiri's ignorance and embraced this world as their own, and they were worshipped as idols by the aliens. Over time, however, when it became clear to the following generations of Keshiri that the humans in their midst were not gods, idolatry had fallen in the minds of the locals, and the ruling humans eventually accepted what their ancestors took to be inferiors as their equals; and in further time, when certain Keshiri came to understand that they could master the Force as well as the neighbouring humans, the purple-skinned aliens were integrated into the Lost Tribe. In varying times, Keshiri would even come to rule the Lost Tribe as Grand Lords over a council of High Lords, consisting of human and Keshiri Sith, just as their human counterparts would rule as Grand Lords.

The Lost Tribe had fallen into some hard times, mainly because of their limited views of the Force; as many Sith mistakenly believed, just as many Jedi mistakenly believed, the Force had only consisted of two sides, those being the light and the dark sides, the latter which the Sith embraced with all their hearts. So they had embraced darkness and evil amongst themselves, corrupting each other as much as their own persons, with each generation having members of either human or Keshiri suffering corruptions so terrible that they wreaked physical ruin on their bodies, the likes of which could only ever be seen in at least one other Sith in the galaxy: the legendary galactic ruler Darth Sidious, a.k.a. Sheev Palpatine, of whom the Lost Tribe remained completely unaware of.

And in a culture such as the Lost Tribe of the Sith, which came to value physical beauty after integrating various aspects from within the original standalone Keshiri society, such deformities created outcasts akin to the Yuuzhan Vong's Shamed Ones (whom the Lost Tribe also remained unaware of); outcasts that were, sometimes, outright executed for their disturbing ugliness. Not only were lowly Sith functionaries labelled as pariahs for their overreaching embrace of the dark side, but highly-respected High Lords, and even some Grand Lords, were shunned for the corruption that the "dark side" had brought upon them, and they were subsequently banished from their own society, if not killed in combat by overwhelming hordes of Sith who had lost all respect for their now-hideous counterparts; and not once did anyone in the Lost Tribe of the Sith think that maybe it was because of their acceptance of the false dark side, the embracing of their own inner darkness, unbalanced by any inner light that may be there, that such pariahs were created. The dark side continued to be used by members of the Lost Tribe to further their own goals, unknowing that if they were to wholeheartedly embrace it, they would become the lowest scum in their society.

But even ignoring what they did amongst themselves individually, the people of the Lost Tribe, human and Keshiri alike, would come to treat each other terribly in terms of groups; whole packs were created between Sith, whether they were human isolationists, Keshiri isolationists, or anything in between, to tear down the society held up by whom they deemed to be the enemy. Sometimes, such revolutions would succeed, sometimes they would fail, but no matter what, the Lost Tribe had always endured and recovered from whatever devastating conflict they had inflicted upon themselves.

However, because of the most recent notion of division among the Lost Tribe, they had launched a long, brutal war that had completely decimated their cities; fire and ruins had blanketed the expansive face of the entirety of Kesh; corpses, or what remained of corpses, practically littered the landmasses of the globe, many pooling blood, guts, intestines, and whatever else from human and Keshiri bodies in the bloodied, body-strewn streets of Kesh's cities. Billions had all but died, reducing the population of the planet to a meager few hundred all around.

And even from what she had learned from the lectures that her teachers had given her, eighteen-year-old Sith Tyro Vestara Khai - having been elevated from apprentice to Tyro just shortly before this crippling conflict - looked out among the ruins of her home of Tahv, the primary city of Kesh, and could only feel despair and hopelessness for her people's circumstances, and for herself. All alone, with bodies all around her in the smoking, red-smeared streets, Vestara doubted that the Lost Tribe could recover from this pointless conflict; even with what few hundred remained, none of whom felt interested in rebuilding the Lost Tribe because of all that had happened, Vestara knew that all was lost.

She could no longer feel either her mother or Sith Saber father through the Force; she felt them die. Her father, Gavar, had perished from a battle in one of Kesh's other cities; Vestara's mother, Lahka, had been a casualty from the violence that now littered Tahv's streets with corpses. Vestara herself had seen her mother's corpse in the Khai family estate after Vestara had wandered Tahv's ruins in despair, breaking down into fits of sobbing over Lahka's body, which had been pocked with holes from multiple blaster shots. Even Vestara's pet uvak, Tikk, had its head cleaved off by the blade of a lightsaber.

Now, no longer knowing what else to do but to plunge her ceremonial shikkar - her personal knife made with a blade made of fine Keshiri glass - into her stomach and end it all, Vestara stopped herself from committing suicide when she felt two new presences enter the Kesh system... only to feel hopeless all over again when she felt that the new presences had the stink of the light side that, even though Vestara had never encountered them before, the Jedi were all too well-known for.

But once more, Vestara paused, and felt that... these Jedi were different. They were strange; they felt somewhat darker, yet... in balance with the light that the Jedi were known for using. They felt grey somehow, in only partial contrast to what Vestara was taught that they would feel like through the Force.

Well, she thought, if, for nothing else than idle curiosity, it would at least give her somewhat of a reason to go on after having everything lost to her.

So she stood, waiting on that same spot where she was prepared to end her own life, and kept her eyes fixed upon the sky above. And after a scant few minutes, the appearance of a large, grey-painted, winged ship descended and began to hover several meters away from Vestara.

The ship's landing ramp extended downward, and from it, there first came the appearance of brown boots, followed by white trousers, before finally giving way to the robed form of a human male Jedi.

And even in spite of herself, Vestara couldn't help but notice that the Jedi, who looked about her age, was quite a looker; he was a redhead, with a fine complexion, raised cheeks, and the stoic look that he was giving her, combined by the feeling of wariness that he gave off through the Force, made him look like a suitable mate by Lost Tribe beauty standards.

But as it was, Vestara wasn't in the mood to truly appreciate the handsome Jedi; instead, she just stared back at him with her dour expression, as if wordlessly asking him why she should go on living.

Moving with the same wariness that emanated from his Force-presence, the Jedi hopped off the landing ramp and cautiously approached Vestara.

"My name is Jedi Knight Ben Skywalker," the man told her. "And you are?"

"Sith Tyro Vestara Khai," she answered, unmoved from the suicidal depression plaguing her thoughts.

Ben cocked his head as he continued to look at Vestara. "You don't feel particularly... dark through the Force."

Vestara shrugged. "I never felt all that compelled to embrace the dark side as my peers do." She then raised her arms to take in the devastation around her, and she gave a mirthless grin. "And you see where that left us all."

"I can feel the others on this planet," Ben said, as if ignoring what Vestara just said. "They all feel hostile to my presence, and the presence of my... pilot. But not you. Why is that?"

"You mean why don't I wanna kill you for being a Jedi?" Vestara asked.

Ben nodded.

"Because, after feeling your presences, I can see that you are not the Jedi we've come to expect," Vestara said.

"That's because we've embraced a new ideology," Ben informed her. "That of the Unifying Force." After a slight pause, he asked her, "Would you like to come with us to learn of it? Become a Jedi?"

Now Vestara was completely roused out of her depression as her mouth dropped in surprise; how could this Jedi ask her to simply turn her back on her entire culture like that? To be a Jedi was anathema to the Sith! It was worse than being a hideous outcast! It was as if he had just asked her to debase herself in so many vile sexual ways that even her imagination would be unable to come up with!

And yet, taking herself aback, she reminded herself of just what was left of her people; what their allegiance to the dark side had ultimately led them to, and the evidence was all too clear around her. She had just been ready to give up her life because she knew that there was nothing left of the Lost Tribe.

But to be a Jedi? Even with this new ideology that felt less constraining than the light side one?

"I would certainly like to have a look at what you have to offer," Vestara ultimately said.

"Then come with me," Ben said before turning and heading back to the ship.

Vestara followed almost dutifully. And as soon as she was aboard, she found herself in a spacious passenger cabin with Ben, and standing right before her and the male Jedi was an older, female Jedi with hair as red as Ben's, yet tinged with obvious grey streaks amplified by weathered wrinkles on her face.

Yet this Jedi's gaze upon Vestara was with stern judgment; whereas Ben's gaze seemed to be of objective impartiality, the woman looking down at the Sith Tyro looked distrustful and almost _hateful_ at the sight of Vestara.

"Mom, this is Vestara Khai," Ben said to the older woman. "She's interested in seeing if the path of the Jedi is better than the Sith."

"Thank you, Ben," the older woman said. She then looked back at Vestara. "Are you willing to help us right now, Miss Khai?"

Vestara's eyebrows narrowed in curiosity. "In what?"

"We'd like to get some information about this world," Ben's mother answered. "Do you know where the nearest database or library is?"

Vestara nodded. "I can take you to one."

The older woman then turned and headed to the ship's cockpit, where she sat in the pilot seat. Vestara had already joined the elder Jedi and sat in the co-pilot seat as Ben's mother lifted the vessel away.

"Turn around about a hundred and fifty-two degrees to port," Vestara told the other.

Ben's mother complied, and then Vestara pointed out through the viewport. "See that building over there? That's Tahv's library."

"Tahv," the older woman said, as if filing that information away in her mind. "Is that the name of this city, or of this world?"

"The city," Vestara answered.

"What's the name of this planet?" the old Jedi asked.

"Kesh," Vestara replied.

"Thank you," the older woman said before piloting the ship over to the distant library.


	2. Chapter 2

After taking what information she and Ben could - via information downloads - from what Vestara Khai called the Main Public Library of Tahv, Mara piloted the D-1X Explorer off of Kesh and launched the ship into hyperspace for the return trip to Denon.

"Alright, Ben," Mara said to her son as she unstrapped herself from the pilot seat. "You can take over for the rest of the trip. I'll go back and make sure that our guest won't cause any trouble."

Ben eyed his mother as he unstrapped himself from the co-pilot seat and stood up. "You sure you don't want me to look after her?"

Mara gazed at her son intently. "Yes, I'm quite sure, Ben."

Ben shrugged with wariness. "Alright, if you insist."

"Of course I insist," Mara replied more forcefully than she intended. "Why, you have any objections to that?"

Ben hesitated in his response. "It's just that... when I introduced you to her, you seemed... like you despised her, Mom."

Mara's lips tightened in consternation. "I'm wary of her, just like you should be. She's a Sith, and Sith believe in the absolute of the dark side."

"But I am wary of her, Mom," Ben replied evenly. "I was wary of her when we met. And I still am."

"So why do you think you should be the one to look after her instead of me, Ben?" Mara asked.

Ben sighed. "I hate to say it, Mom, but it's because of your past as Emperor's Hand."

Mara raised an eyebrow. "What does my past have to do with this?"

"You know more about Sith than I do," Ben pointed out. "You know about people like Palpatine and Vader; what they're capable of, how they think, all that. But I think that may also lead you into doing stuff you may not want to with Vestara."

"How so?"

"You're more distrustful of her."

"And that's a bad thing?" Mara inquired.

"It could be," Ben replied. "You may read things into her actions that may not even be there, just because she's a Sith. And it may cause you to react irrationally."

"You're saying that I'm too emotionally invested in this?"

Ben nodded with confidence.

Mara crossed her arms over her chest in judgment. "And I suppose that you wanting to look after her has nothing to do with the fact that she's quite an attractive girl?" She couldn't help but notice a faint blush rise from her son's cheeks.

"If you think you're more capable of looking after her than I am, Mom-"

"I do," Mara interrupted harshly.

"-then you can look after her," Ben concluded. "I won't go against your orders."

"Good," Mara said after a moment.

And without another word, she left the cockpit to enter the passenger cabin. There, she noticed that Vestara Khai was sitting in one of the seats at the back, her face in a perpetual state of misery, just as her Force-presence informed Mara.

But, knowing that Khai was a Sith, Mara knew that she would have to keep a better observance of the girl; while it may be understandable that she must be grieving for everyone and everything that she lost back on her homeworld, Mara figured that that could just be a play-up of her emotions, if not an outright charade.

When it came to Sith, only Sith knww what they thought and felt, and for all that Mara knew about the girl, she may have hated every single person back on Kesh, including her family, if she even had one to speak of.

For all Mara knew, bringing Khai back to Denon could be detrimental to the Jedi Order in some way, and she was starting to regret her decision in agreeing with Ben to bring her with them.

The Sith girl finally seemed to notice Mara gazing at her, only to look away and return to her sulking. Mara then took the opportunity to head to the back of the passenger cabin and sat in a seat that was across the isle from Khai.

The girl then looked over at Mara, her expression never changing from its depression. "I suppose you're here to make sure that I don't do anything Sith-related?"

"Yes," Mara said directly.

"Be my guest, then," Khai replied, returning her stare to the back of the seat in front of her.

The two of them sat like that for a long while before the girl said, without looking away at the spot ahead, "I'd tell you that you don't have to waste time just watching me sit here and grieve... but I suppose I should know better than that."

"If you know what's good for you," Mara replied.

Khai looked back at Mara, with more sadness on her face than before. "You don't believe that I really miss everything that I've lost, do you?"

"When it comes to Sith, appearances, even through the Force, can be deceiving," Mara said, her stoic exterior not cracking under the pretense of Khai's depression. For all the seeming truthfulness that came through in the girl's being, both in what she demonstrated to Mara outwardly and through the Force, the Jedi Master knew better than to just buy into her story.

Khai's expression turned into one of anger. "I don't expect you to believe in what I feel. But don't you expect me to just let you sit there and stare at me like I'm some disease-infested witch. So leave me alone... if you know what's good for you."

Mara couldn't help but smirk. "You know, I may not know anything about the extent of your training back on your homeworld, but I somehow doubt that you can beat me in a physical match; or in any match for that matter. So even I did believe that you're actually grieving, I'm still going to sit here and stare at you like a disease-infested witch, because, well... when you think about it, you kind of are."

Khai's glare toward Mara was becoming more hate-filled by the moment.

"I mean, after all," Mara continued, "you and your people liked to dabble in the dark side of the Force; that's a disease in and of itself."

"You have no idea what the dark side is like," Khai growled.

Mara made a wry gaze. "Actually, I kind of do; I worked for one of the most evil men who ever lived in the galaxy. And even after my acceptance of the Unifying Force, I can tell you, that for whether or not the dark side does, in fact, exist, _evil_ will always exist. And your people represent that, just as you represent it."

"How _dare_ you," Khai intoned.

And then the Sith leaped upon Mara, but the latter had already countered her attack by grabbing the girl's collar and slamming her to the deck on her back. Mara then swiftly grabbed Khai's right arm and turned the Sith onto her stomach, where the Jedi Master pinned her there as she applied great pressure on her opponent, making the Sith scream in pain.

"Mom, that's enough!"

Without easing any of the pressure that she was putting on Khai, Mara looked and found Ben standing at the threshold of the cockpit.

"She attacked me, Ben!" Mara cried. "I have to make sure she doesn't pose a threat to the Jedi Order."

"Mom, you're posing a threat to the Jedi Order."

At that, Mara stopped, utterly stunned at what her son just said to her, and let her hold on Khai's arm go, allowing the girl to slink along the deck from the pain that she just endured.

"You're out of your bounds," Mara said as she approached Ben.

"And you're not?" Ben questioned once his mother reached him. "I heard your conversation with her. You instigated her."

"And she attacked me, just as a Sith would do," Mara intoned.

"And using emotional manipulation to get what you wanted isn't what a Sith would do?" Ben countered. "What _Palpatine_ would do?"

Mara levelled a finger up at her son's face. "_You_ have no right to compare me to Palpatine; you have _no_ idea what Palpatine was like. And you have no idea what a Sith is like, so don't you _dare_ tell me that I am _anything_ like her kind." She pointed back at Khai without turning away from Ben. "Her kind was what raised me to believe in the foolish principles of the dark side, and her kind was what killed your father. Don't you ever forget that, and don't you _ever_ try to defend something like that creature behind me."

Ben looked back at his mother with disgust. "I may not know what a Sith is like, but I can say for certainty that she's not like what you described." He nodded back at the snivelling, whimpering Khai.

Mara gritted her teeth in anger. "Ben, return to the cockpit."

"No, Mom."

"Jedi Skywalker, return to the cockpit _right __now_."

"No, Master Skywalker."

"I said _return to the cockpit_!"

And as she screamed those words, she grabbed her son by his throat and shoved him back against the pilot seat.

And it was only then Mara came to her senses and realized what she was doing; then she saw the look of shock on her son's face and released her stiff grip on his neck.

Mara didn't even bother to apologize; she simply let Ben run past her so that he could gather the crying Vestara Khai up into his arms and onto the passenger seat that she had leaped off from, where he sat beside her to comfort her over her grief.

For the rest of the trip, Mara wouldn't talk to either of the teenagers behind her; she simply seated herself in the pilot seat, allowing Ben and Khai to be with each other, and all the while, Mara fell into reflection over what she had done.

She wasn't afraid of telling Jacen what she had done; for whatever punishment he would deem appropriate for the actions that she had just committed, she knew that she could handle it. It wasn't as if he were a Sith; someone like Jacen could never be someone like Palpatine, as it was not in Jacen's character to do anything that would psychologically break others as punishment, even after all that Vergere had done to him during the Yuuzhan Vong War.

No, Mara was more afraid of herself now, and how she handled Khai and Ben, and she knew that Jacen would probably levy as much criticism for her actions as she was doing to herself. She knew that she could have just easily peeled back through whatever layers of deception that Khai would have thrown around her being, regardless of the girl's training; it may seem arrogant, but Mara felt that she could read through Khai's Force-presence as she could with any other teenager or young adult who dabbled in the Force.

But Ben was right; Mara just wanted an excuse to kill a Sith after all the hatred and resentment that she held against them; against people like Palpatine, Vader, Krayt...

She had been raised in darkness, as Khai had no doubt been, and she harbored nothing but hatred for Palpatine even to this day. Even after all her Jedi training, her time with Luke, and the Jedi practices that she avowed herself to, she always felt guided more by her anger than by the teachings of the light side, or of the Unifying Force, that Luke and Jacen practiced and preached respectively; and that was what made her scared to think that Ben may have been right, that she was closer to Palpatine than she wanted to believe.


	3. Chapter 3

Seated behind his desk in his office, Jacen drew his eyebrows together in frustration as he read Master Kyle Katarn's most recent report; they still had not found the escaped Jedi-Sith clones that were created by scientists working for Grand Admiral Thrawn nearly four decades earlier.

This had all started when Kyle's former apprentice, Jedi Knight Jaden Korr, received a vision from a Force spectre of Lumiya - a dead Sith woman who tried to lure Jacen over to the false dark side less than a decade before - telling Jaden to come to an unnamed, snowy planet in the Unknown Regions - which was, thankfully, not owned by the Chiss Ascendancy, thus mitigating any potential border disputes that might have occurred. Jaden complied, and he failed to notify Jacen or anyone else in the Jedi Order about his departure to the Unknown Regions with his personal Skipray Blastboat.

Upon arriving in the system of the unnamed world, Jaden witnessed an ancient-looking Dreadnaught, which his Blastboat's sensors identified to be the _Harbinger_, drop out of hyperspace with an escape pod in her wake. Aboard the _Harbinger_ was a crew captained by someone with a really dark aura about him, while aboard the escape pod was a Jedi whose presence was more or less consistent with the presence of a modern Unifying Force Jedi.

It didn't take long for the Dreadnaught to destroy the escape pod, and Jaden, realizing that whoever was captaining the _Harbinger_ was a Sith, also sensed that the behemoth ship's captain's intentions were to destroy the Blastboat. So Jaden piloted his Skipray down through the nearby planet's atmosphere, losing it amidst one of the planet's blizzards, and utilized a Force-trick that was meant to seem as if he had died, such as in a crash.

Then he felt the crew of the _Harbinger_ disappear from his Force-senses, and he continued on with his mission to find out what was on this planet to begin with, feeling regret that he could do nothing to stop the _Harbinger_. Regardless, however, he continued on, and finally located a hidden base, which Jaden entered, and during his investigation via the holographic records that were around, he discovered that this base dated back to 9 ABY, around the time of Thrawn's campaign against the New Republic, and which was dedicated to cloning certain Jedi, whose identities remained unknown to Jaden.

And then Jaden encountered an insane clone of Jedi Master Kam Solusar, who identified himself by the codename Alpha, and who subsequently duelled Jaden with a fully-functional lightsaber. Jaden defeated and killed Alpha in combat, but then later found that his Blastboat was stolen, most likely by the other Jedi-Sith clones during his duel against Alpha. Afterward, Jaden, unable to get a signal out to Denon for a pickup, called Master Katarn for help through the Force, and after Kyle came, Jaden told his former Master about both the _Harbinger_ and the escaped clones.

From there, Kyle sent a holotransmission back to Jacen, informing him of the dual threat. In response, Jacen tasked Kyle and Jaden to go after the clones, assuring the subordinate Jedi that he would task Master Saba Sebatyne and her squadron, the Wild Knights, to go after the _Harbinger_, which Jacen, soon after, did.

Days later, Jacen received yet another holotransmission from Kyle, telling him that he and Jaden had come across a planet that had warring Sith on it. Jacen thanked Kyle for the information and told him that he and Jaden should continue their search for the clones; afterward, Jacen tasked his aunt Mara to go to this Sith-filled world for further investigation, and she took her son along.

So far, however, Kyle has only given an update just to let Jacen know that he and Jaden were still on the case; and Saba had, minutes beforehand, sent him a communique telling him that the hunt for the _Harbinger_ continued.

Hopefully, Jacen thought, Mara may have something to say about this Sith-filled world that she and Ben visited; though she didn't send him a communique or a holotransmission, which Jacen found strange, he felt her and Ben's presences appear in the Denon system... although with a new, slightly dark presence, and all three of them felt incredibly reserved.

Aside from this feeling of reservation coming from Mara, all Jacen could sense from her was, _I'll explain when I arrive_.

So Jacen, feeling wary of what Mara may have to tell him - thinking that it may have something to do with the new presence that she and Ben brought back with them - continued on with his duties, sifting through more reports, confirming or denying missions as he felt necessary, for several more minutes until he felt Mara, Ben, and their guest, as he thought of this new presence, finally arrive in the Jedi Temple.

It didn't take long - only several more minutes - until a knock from outside the door came from Mara, as Jacen sensed.

"Come in," Jacen stated.

And when she finally entered, she looked horribly guilty.

"Please, sit down," Jacen told her before she said anything. After she complied and sat herself in one of the two visitor chairs in his office, Jacen asked out of concern, "What happened?"

"Jacen, I... I hurt Ben."

Jacen drew his eyebrows together in further concern. "What?" He shook his head as if to clear it, and then said, "Take this from the top, please."

Mara sighed, and told him the whole story, from the pickup of the Sith girl, Vestara Khai, to the confrontation that Mara and Ben had about the girl.

When Mara concluded her story, Jacen asked, "Where is the girl now?"

"She's with Ben," Mara answered glumly. "Ever since the incident, they haven't left each other's side."

"I see," Jacen said. After sighing, he said, "I shouldn't have let you and Ben go. That was my mistake."

Mara looked at her nephew in askance.

"I'm sorry to say this, Aunt Mara," Jacen said, "but you have a habit of reopening old wounds."

"What do you mean?"

"I feel like an idiot," Jacen said, "for not having this discussion with you years ago, after you nearly killed Nom Anor. You remember? You tried to kill him at Belkaden, after we found him and his pirate base. If it weren't for me, you'd have ended his life; that sounds so unlike the Mara Jade Skywalker who spared him his life during the Battle of Yuuzhan'tar."

"What does that have to do with how I reacted to Ben and the Sith girl?"

"Everything," Jacen answered sternly. "It shows that you can't let the past go, when you had already made peace with it. When you met Uncle Luke and turned to the path of the Jedi, you left your past as Emperor's Hand behind; you left your experiences with Palpatine behind. And when you spared Nom Anor's life during the final battle of the war, as you told me, after all that he had done to you, you showed that you would not let your anger dictate your actions... that is, until you learned that he had survived that battle years later."

"Nom Anor escaped justice at the end of the war, Jacen," Mara pointed out. "You think I could just let him continue to get away after that?"

"It would have been against a Jedi's duty to let someone like Nom Anor continue to run free," Jacen agreed evenly. "But you would have been out of your bounds had you actually murdered him, as you almost did; and that, to me, shows that when ghosts from your past returns, after you made peace with them, you decide to reopen the wounds that they brought upon you. Now, after all these years, with what you just told me about how you handled this Vestara Khai and how that affected your emotions with Ben, I can see that the specter of Palpatine continues to live on in you."

Mara's mouth dropped in astonishment at what Jacen just told her; when something like that came from Ben, as it did back aboard the Explorer, Mara could have just as well written it off as the naïve platitudes of a teenager who didn't know everything. But while Jacen was far younger than Mara, she couldn't deny that his own brand of wisdom, which helped the Jedi Order reshape itself after the Yuuzhan Vong War, was not to be taken lightly, and that his word was something that had weight to it.

"What should I do, Master Solo?"

Jacen's expression narrowed in thought. After several moments, he spoke.

"During my travels after the war, I had come across an interesting space station in the Maw. Should you agree to my advice, I will provide you the coordinates of this station, and there, you will meet with the Mind Walkers. Through them, you may be able to improve yourself when you face Abeloth."

"Abeloth?" Mara asked. "Who's Abeloth?"

"The representation of inner darkness, unbalanced by light, according to the Mind Walkers," Jacen elaborated. "When you encounter her during your Mind Walking, she will lead you into temptation, into fulfilling your desires through the Force; if you successfully resist, you will come out spiritually stronger for it."

"What happens if I fail?" Mara asked. "What if this Abeloth leads me into temptation?"

Jacen grimaced. "Then you will die."

Mara looked at Jacen in shock.

"You're free to not take this route, Aunt Mara," Jacen quickly said. "You may go to that cave on Dagobah, as Uncle Luke once did. But one way or another, after what you told me, you know that I can't simply allow you to continue as a Jedi Master unpunished."

Mara's expression tightened in determination. "I will go to this station, Jacen."

"Are you sure? You could just go to Dagobah."

Mara shook her head. "If I fail the test on Dagobah, I don't think I'd be able to live with myself. If I fail aboard this station of yours, then at least I won't have to live with that failure."

"You still have friends and family, Aunt Mara. What about Ben?"

Mara sighed. "Ben can go on without me. He has you, Jaina, and your parents; besides, he's a man now. He doesn't need me anymore."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that," Jacen argued. "I doubt he's lost all love for you."

Mara's lips tightened to a thin line. "I still want to go to this station, Jacen; if I die, I want you to tell Ben why I chose this path."

Jacen sighed. "If you insist."


	4. Chapter 4

Alone in the training hall of the Jedi Temple, Master Kenth Hamner regarded Vestara with a suspicious eye; in return, Vestara continued to stand firmly in her place and looked back at Hamner with the same neutral gaze that she gave to the likes of her father and all her other teachers.

"I hope you understand, Apprentice Khai," Hamner began evenly, "that, given your Sith background, I may very well hold you to higher scrutiny in your training than other students of the Jedi arts."

"I understand that, Master Hamner," Vestara replied just as evenly, "and I promise not to let you, Grand Master Solo, or anyone else in the Order down; I will not succumb to my hatred and anger as I had been taught throughout my life on Kesh. Your faith in me will be rewarded."

"Let us hope so," Hamner stated. "Now, from what Master Solo has informed me about your training, given what you told him, of course, you seem to be fairly adept at lightsaber combat." The Jedi Master then unhooked his lightsaber from his belt, ignited it, and then set it to its stun setting. "I'd like to see that for myself."

Vestara nodded wordlessly before doing as Hamner did, igniting the blade of a soft blue saber, now set at a nonlethal frequency. Then she and Hamner adopted combat-ready positions before they simultaneously launched at each other.

Indeed, as the two of them sparred, Hamner, for all that he was able to score stunning hits along various portions of Vestara's body, was quite impressed with how she was able to hold her own; it would still take years for her to fully master lightsaber combat, but for someone so young, Vestara was a capable combatant.

But as much as he was testing her combat skills, inferior to Hamner's own experience, the Master was focussing more on her Force-presence, probing her thoughts and feelings even as he kept up his own strikes and parries. He sensed restraint, concentration, and an intense desire to impress whoever taught her.

Hamner could see how that could be utilized by Sith teachings as much as Jedi teachings, and even as he still kept up in his practice duel with Vestara, he reflected how that was one of the many things that the Unifying Force theory could be proven correct. Sure, Hamner was a loyal follower of the Jedi Order, and he put the utmost faith in Grand Master Solo, but even to this day, Hamner had his doubts as to how that so blurred the line that was originally devised by the thought of the existence of the light and dark sides of the Force.

But right now, as he practiced with Vestara Khai, he found himself understanding more clearly as to why not everything was simply black and white; anything could be used for good or bad, depending on the situation, on the people, the time... anything. And Vestara's own drive to impress Master Hamner, whose outward expression remained impassive and his Force-presence subdued to the point that a relative novice such as Vestara would be unable to sense what he thought or felt, was but one example as to how it could be used for either good or bad.

After a time in the practice duel, however, the bad aspect of Vestara's drive arose.

In a fit of frustration that broke through restraint, concentration, and desire to impress Master Hamner, her slashes and parries became faster and significantly more vicious. It was then that Hamner poured all of his concentration into just fighting off Vestara so that after half a minute, he was able to swiftly disarm her by by elbowing her lightsaber out of her hand before using his free hand to Force-fling her across the training hall.

As soon as her back hit the wall behind her, Hamner used the Force again to pin Vestara there, where she vainly struggled in anger. But then, once her eyes locked on with Hamner's gaze - which was a mix of disappointment and frustration - she almost immediately calmed down, assuring Hamner to release his grasp on her through the Force.

After Vestara landed on her feet, Hamner quietly approached her.

"That temper of yours is one that must be cooled down, as it were, by intensive self-reflection and meditation," Hamner said. "You must learn to control yourself more thoroughly, to not let your emotions get the better of you even in the heat of combat. Your mastery of lightsaber combat is well enough for someone of your age and from where you had come from; but therein lies the problem: where you had come from."

In spite of the emotionless expression that Vestara gave Hamner, the latter could read her infuriated Force-presence all too-well.

Nevertheless, Hamner pressed on, as he thought necessary. "Your time among the Sith, as you had been raised by them, has instilled within you the desire for escalation at the cost of all else, and to utilize everything that you have within you - your skills, your influence, your power, everything - to your advantage without thinking about what the consequences, short and long-term alike, might be. If that is not to be entirely stamped out, it must be utilized, restrained in a more methodical manner, in a way that will not endanger yourself or others around you, whether that danger is physical, spiritual, or both."

"Will this be reported to Grand Master Solo, Master Hamner?" Vestara asked, obviously worried in spite of her fixed composure.

"It will be," Hamner replied without a hint of scorn for Vestara. "All training reports are to be given to the Grand Master, regardless of results."

Sensing Vestara's apprehension, Hamner continued, "But that doesn't mean that you will be automatically expelled from the Jedi Order; I'm sure that Grand Master Solo will see, as I do, that you still have a long way to do in your training. Just remember to work on restraining that temper of yours to the utilization of relatively non-aggressive combat, as a Jedi would do."

"Relatively?" Vestara asked.

Hamner couldn't help but grin. "Of course, there is always aggression on the part of any fighter within the heat of combat." Then his expression hardened instantly. "But it must never be to do anymore harm to others than to neutralize them as a threat, if no other options exist to resolve the situation."

Hamner then gave Vestara the schedule for their next training session before dismissing her from the training hall. He then began inputting a message to Grand Master Solo about this session on his datapad.


	5. Chapter 5

A world that was practically within spitting distance of the Unknown Regions, yet far from the grasp of the vast Alliance of the Galaxy, Fhost was a backwater world that, in spite of having no formal law or order, was surprisingly well-regulated and maintained with simple friendly civility... and a good dose of debt-owing, as well. Mainly run by good-natured smugglers and similarly respectful pirates, who had no acceptance of scum of the galaxy once known to be bred by the likes of the late Dev'lia, this world, though it had a dank and bleak backdrop, was one that was incredibly peaceful and overall non-violent.

But violence would soon threaten this informally peaceful world.

Standing and loitering around inside a local mall, the Jedi-Sith clones, escaped from the world from which they had been grown, discretely viewed the roof of a nearby hospital; they had spread out, taking various positions, and using the Force to commune with one another as to what they should do next.

Their leader - the light-skinned human female Seer, replicated from the genes of the late Shira Brie, who would later go on to be the Dark Lady of the Sith Lumiya - saw, just as her fellow clones did, that there was a medical supply ship now landing on the hospital's roof.

_We must go now_, Seer communed to the other clones.

Once she felt the acknowledging Force-prods from her ilk, Seer and her followers began moving away from their positions at respectable paces; from their previous reconnaissance on this world the day before, a medical supply ship would land at this exact hour and stay for roughly the same amount of time to discharge its supply of drugs before taking off, refuelled, for its next destination.

Had it not been for that ship, which the clones had taken back on their homeworld, enduring irrecoverable damage from an asteroid field following a hyperspace drop-out, Seer and the others wouldn't be here right now doing this. Instead, they would have probably, at best, stopped by on this world to refuel their stolen ship before continuing on for Mother; and Mother was the reason that Seer was given that name, for she saw a vision in which she and all the other clones would seek salvation from their traumas.

The same went for the other clones; Maker - a clone replicated from Kenth Hamner - had his name because he had created the makeshift lightsabers that all the clones carried on their persons; Scar - replicated from Tionne Solusar - had her name because of the all-too-noticeable scar that ran alongside her face, from the base of her scalp all the way to her chin; Two-Blade - replicated from Corran Horn - had his name because he preferred to wield two lightsabers, one of which was his own while the other was the blade of one of the other clones who died back on their homeworld.

As for the others, Runner - cloned from Kyle Katarn - was so named because he was the most elusive of the clones in the torture labs of their homeworld, having attempted to make several escape attempts in the past; Hunter - cloned from Mara Jade - was so named because of all the clones gathered, she killed more scientists and guards when they all finally broke free of their bonds; and finally, Soldier - cloned from Jaden Korr - was so named because he had managed to organize the entire escape-and-slaughter plan back in those labs to begin with.

None of the clones had any qualms about what they committed down in those labs; it was right and just to do to those scientists and those guards, for they had done far worse when the scientists experimented on the clones and when the guards would abuse the clones out of sheer entertainment. At least some of those scientists and guards received quick, if not painless, deaths from their killers. And not only did that slaughter offer the clones the vindication that their fragile, unstable psyches desperately needed, but it was also necessary; thanks to Seer's vision of Mother, the clones finally had a purpose to escape the lab, which was probably more important for them than simple revenge.

As soon as Seer and her followers had converged upon the exit of the semi-dilapidated mall, prepared to leave and steal the medical supply ship, they all seized up when they felt the presence of two other Force-users enter the Fhost system.

And one of them was the one who they stole their first ship from; the one who shared a similar presence to Soldier.

"We must hurry," Seer said aloud to the others. And without another word, she rushed out through the wide doors of the mall, with her subordinate clones all but just as quickly following in her wake.

No one would stop them - especially not Seer - from meeting Mother. No... Mother was their savior, who would cure them of everything they had endured back in those labs. Mother promised them that when she reached out to them through the Force; her reassuring touch was all that Seer needed to know that after all the pain, the torturous experiments that she endured, she would seek the spiritual salvation that she and the others all needed.

To hell with all these other wasteful beings around them in this galaxy, Seer thought; she, Maker, Scar, Two-Blade, Soldier, Runner, and Hunter; they all deserved this. And Seer wasn't going to let any of them down, least of all herself; it was bad enough that Alpha could not be among them, for he had made a brave, sacrificial attempt to kill the Jedi who had brought them their stolen vessel.

So Seer had no second thoughts or regrets as she and the others behind her rushed through the streets with Force-enhanced speed until they reached the entrance of the hospital. There, Seer shoved out both hands with a powerful burst of the Force, blowing open the doors and sending the few beings who were just about to leave straight back inside.

By the time the clones were all inside and searching for a way that would bring them to the hospital's rooftop, security guards - who looked more like volunteers than the paid professionals, had Seer known about this from prior knowledge - were already rushing in to see what was going on.

Without hesitation, Seer brandished her red-bladed lightsaber and hacked down the first security guard in her path before he had a chance to brandish his own worn-out-looking handblaster. Once the other guards trained their own weapons upon her, she effortlessly deflected them right back to her unworthy opponents, and it wasn't long before Hunter, Runner, Soldier, and the others ignited their own lightsabers to mow down the rest of the guards and anyone else who got in their way - which included innocent civilians who were just trying to escape the carnage.

"This way!" Soldier cried out. He was pointing his free hand to the entrance of a stairwell that, in the midst of the ecstasy that the violence around her was giving her mind, Seer had missed upon the brief first inspection she was able to commence upon entering the hospital.

Nodding for Soldier to lead the way, the two of them and the other clones followed their skeptical fellow toward the closed stairwell door, which Soldier cut down in a single swipe. When that was done, he began Force-leaping up two levels at a time, just as Seer and the others with them were now doing, until they reached the topmost floor; by that point, the remaining security guards on the lower levels wouldn't be able to stop them.

But the two Jedi who had entered the system might have a chance; for the Skipray Blastboat that they had piloted into the system was now already hovering above the landed medical supply ship.

From the speakers of the hovering Blastboat, a voice that sounded all too much like Runner's demanded, "Halt! Surrender, and none of you will be harmed."

Seer turned and found Runner, whose glare was fixed upon the flying ship, to be seething in hatred, both in physical expression and through the Force; he apparently didn't like hearing the voice from which his own was based off of. Seer could understand that; the clones didn't like to think of themselves as clones, but as people unto themselves. So for any of them to be interacting with their templates was all but a constant reminder that, deep down, they weren't truly unique individuals; and for that, the value of their own lives was one that each of them had debated on at one point or another, either when they were being tortured, or when they had freed themselves from captivity.

So it was no wonder why Runner decided to leap upward, lightsaber drawn, to attack the Blastboat all by himself.

"Runner, no!" Hunter cried out as she reached a hand out for him in an attempt to stop his ascent with the Force.

But Runner's launch broke through Hunter's attempt to claim him, and he continued to soar upward for the Blastboat...

Only to be blasted out of existence by one quick laser blast from one of the ship's cannons.

"We have to go _now_!" Seer commanded the others, repressing her own feelings for Runner's sudden demise.

"Not with that ship above us!" Scar pointed out.

But before any of them could think about how they could get rid of the Blastboat, Seer and the others turned to find that a whole squadron of security guards had entered the roof through the door that the clones had used, and the guards were all levelling their handblasters at the clones.

In a fit of rage, Seer raised her lightsaber-wielding hand up toward the Blastboat while directing her free hand toward the guards, unleashing a torrent of the Force from each hand.

As all of the guards were blown back, either back through the door that led them onto the roof or off the ledge behind them, the attack directed at the Blastboat impacted against the ship's laser cannons, blowing them to pieces.

.

After Kyle saw via the Blastboat's sensors that the laser cannons were gone, he turned to Jaden in the co-pilot's chair and told him, "I'll go down there and take care of 'em myself. You stay here in case any of them get past me and try to take over this ship."

Jaden nodded wordlessly and took over his former Master's place in the pilot's chair as Kyle hurried out to the back of the Blastboat; there, Jaden had already lowered the ship's boarding ramp, allowing Kyle to leap out, his blue-bladed lightsaber in hand and blazing.

He aimed himself toward the clone that looked like Shira Brie, where he ended up clashing blades with her. The two of them started duelling immediately while the other clones around them continued to bat laser bolts back toward the security guards that continued to appear on the roof via the entrance that brought them here.

Jaden, meanwhile, decided that he had to do something, even up here in the confines of the Blastboat's cockpit; so he reached out to the minds of the remaining security guards and began directing their minds, improving their strategy as they began to better coordinate their attacks upon the clones.

And soon, as the number of guards who were getting killed decreased, the tide soon turned against the clones' favor, and three more of them fell; even the Corran clone was permanently downed in spite of the advantage of the two lightsabers he wielded, which left only the Jaden and Brie clones.

But before either of the last two clones could fall, the Jaden clone, in the heat of anger and grief for his lost brethren, unleashed a torrent of Force-energy more powerful than the Lumiya one had, sending all of the remaining guards flying off the roof to plummet to their deaths on the ground below.

Then the Jaden clone leaped up and landed in a cat-like crouch on top of the Blastboat, where he planted the blade of his lightsaber straight through both the ship's energy shields and armor plating as he started to carve a circular hole.

Sensing the danger from aft, however, Jaden sent the Blastboat into a wild spin in an attempt to throw his clone off. But his clone had managed to Force-plant himself against the hull and continued his work almost completely unhindered.

Once he was done, the clone Force-shoved the section of the Blastboat he carved in into the ship before he himself flipped inside.

Now sensing that his clone was in the ship, Jaden set the Blastboat on autopilot and hurried back, brandishing and igniting his lightsaber just in time to block off a strike from his clone's own laser weapon.

However, they both stopped for a moment as they regarded each other; though they already knew that they would be confronting a copy of the other based solely on their Force-presences, both Jaden and his clone were still mildly distressed at seeing that their opponent was the same face that they would see if they looked into a mirrpanel.

Nevertheless, that moment lasted for only a few brief seconds before they pushed off against each other and began exchanging violent clashes, with Jaden simply trying to defend himself while his clone was trying to do everything in his power to avenge his fallen brethren... and make sure that he was the only person in the galaxy who had that face.

After a minute of duelling, however, the clone managed to get past Jaden's defenses and launched a kick that sent the Jedi Knight stumbling back into the Blastboat's cockpit. There, Jaden landed against the ship's controls, and then blocked his same-looking opponent's next lightsaber strike before kicking him in the sternum.

Nevertheless, the clone quickly recovered from the blow and made another stab at Jaden, who just as deftly caught the opposing blade with his own before catching it in a lock that he used to spin the clone around so that the latter's back was now facing the controls, allowing Jaden the advantage of cornering his clone.

However, the clone seemed to be thinking the same thing, so instead of striking, he committed a feint that Jaden instantly took to blocking, only for the clone to be the one to lock his blade with his opponent's before sending both blades into skewering the Blastboat's controls.

And with that, the ship began an uncontrollable tumble toward the roof of the hospital.

.

Kyle quickly broke off from his duel with the Lumiya clone when he and his opponent both saw the rapidly-descending Blastboat headed for their direction. So they headed in the opposite directions of the roof as the Blastboat craved its way across the rooftop, where it plowed through the door that led down into the rest of the hospital before diving off the ledge that it had been heading toward.

However, Lumiya's clone was not as dissuaded by the Blastboat's erratic actions, for she was able to take advantage of the distraction provided to Kyle by using the Force to blow him off the roof. But instead of screaming as he soared down to the ground below, he hurriedly deactivated his lightsaber, hooked it back to his belt, and reached into one of his belt's pockets to take out a line of metallic string that he then cast out toward the hospital before him.

The small metallic hook at the far end of the string latched itself against the structure of the hospital, burrowing itself in before securing itself in its selected spot and snapping the rest of the string taut. From there, Kyle was able to use the momentum to swing toward the building's face before using the Force to begin propelling himself up back to the roof.

Meanwhile, as the Blastboat plummeted for its inevitable and explosive doom for the ground below, both Jaden and his clone had used the Force to each blast a way out through the dying ship. They then jumped out through their improvised exits and rocketed toward separate windows of the hospital ahead of them, with Jaden instinctively choosing the window below the one that his clone chose.

The both of them crashed through their respective windows before landing in simultaneous graceful rolls from which they nimbly sprang up to their feet. While Jaden's clone had landed inside an empty room, Jaden had ended up inadvertently disturbing an Ithorian family visiting a sick relative, for which he had to quickly apologize for before rushing out to confront his clone again.

Meanwhile, Jaden's clone, Soldier, had already busted out through his room's door and was now rushing down the hallway toward the nearest stairwell entrance that would take him back up to the roof. When Soldier was halfway up to the roof, however, Jaden had reached the stairwell, several levels below his ascending clone, and reached out through the Force to try to stop him from proceeding any further upward.

But then the Lumiya clone, Seer, had appeared at the threshold of the now-destroyed entrance to the hospital's roof and cast out her own hand in Jaden's direction, blowing him back into the hallway from which he emerged. Because of that, Soldier was able to ascend the rest of the way up to join his surviving fellow clone, where they turned and headed toward the waiting medical supply shuttle, which was missed by the Blastboat's destructive path.

The two clones soon boarded the supply shuttle just as Kyle reached the roof, and the Jedi Master's final sight of either of the remaining clones was of Seer smiling at him in a taunting fashion as the shuttle's boarding ramp rose up to close the ship off from the rest of the galaxy.

However, Kyle figured that he might still have a chance of stopping them from getting away, so he rushed forward, his lightsaber back in hand and active again, and aimed his blade for the shuttle's engines...

Only to be nearly hit by the swerving shuttle as it quickly rose off its landing pad, now piloted by Soldier. As it was, Kyle ducked beneath the shuttle and backed away as it ascended further and headed off through the sky.

By then, Jaden had already joined his former Master as they helplessly watched the shuttle escaped, even as their hopes for stopping the two remaining clones was temporarily resurrected as security patrol ships appeared along the horizon.

Then those hopes were just as quickly killed again when those patrol ships just began to drop out of the sky like dead flies; and both Kyle and Jaden could feel that it was the Force-work of the Lumiya clone.

It wasn't long after that before the shuttle disappeared into Fhost's dim skies, and Kyle forced himself to take out his personal commlink and inform Master Solo about what just happened.


	6. Chapter 6

In spite of the five thousand or so years between the _Harbinger_'s near-fatal plunge through hyperspace to its dropout a few millennia later, Saes Rrogan, the Kaleesh Sith commander of the Dreadnaught, found himself unsurprised to find that the Mandalorians were still a force to be contended with.

And he saw that through the _Harbinger_'s bridge's forward viewport, which revealed the lush world of Mandalore circled by a small armada of impressive-looking vessels; vessels that were obviously foreign to Saes, but were nevertheless recognizable as dangerous to the Sith commander.

"Milord, we're being hailed!" the dark-skinned human female communications officer said from her station.

"Open hailing frequencies," Saes commanded.

Once his command was fulfilled, a gruff-sounding voice said through the channel, "This is Goran Beviin, commander of the Mandalore Defense Force. Identify yourself and state your intentions."

"This is Commander Saes Rrogan of the _Harbinger_," Saes said. "I would like to speak to the Mandalore."

"Why?"

"That is for the Mandalore and I to discuss," Saes replied sternly.

A moment of silence passed, and Saes could guess, without getting a read on Beviin's Force-presence, that the Mandalorian was probably flabbergasted that he would be talked to like that. But eventually, Beviin's voice returned with, "Just give a me a few minutes, and I'll have the Mandalore for you to speak to."

Saes gave Beviin a good five minutes before an even gruffer yet elderly-sounding voice came from the other end of the channel. "This is Mandalore Boba Fett. What do you want, Commander Rrogan?"

"Are we on a secure channel, Mandalore?" Saes inquired politely enough.

"We Mandos always are," Fett came back darkly.

Saes couldn't help but grin. "Of course you are. But is there anyone else listening in on this conversation who would be serving you?"

"What business would that be of to you?"

"Fair enough, especially since what I have to offer may concern everyone under your rule, Mandalore Fett: I want to conspire with you in bringing down the Jedi once and for all."

Fett fell silent for a moment, just as Beviin did, before the Mandalore actually burst out laughing. Saes's expression fell into one of incredulity.

"The Jedi?" Fett asked with just as much incredulity. "You must be out of your mind. The Jedi Order is one of the most well-funded organizations in the AG, and you mean to tell me that you wanna go after 'em?!"

"You don't wish the Jedi dead, Mandalore?" Saes asked.

"I've had my problems with them," Fett said, calming down from his laughter. "But those problems are under the bridge, as far as I'm concerned. Even if the Jedi weren't as powerful as they are now, I have no reason to go to war with them."

"I see," Saes said thoughtfully. "Mandalore Fett, are you familiar with the history concerning your people in correlation to the Jedi and the Sith?"

"Fairly," Fett replied evenly. "Why?"

"I find it rather interesting that you, the leader of the Mandalorian people, would not want to engage the Jedi for all the transgressions that they've committed against your ancestors," Saes said. "It seems like quite an injustice, if you ask me."

Fett's small chuckle wasn't the response that Saes wanted. "Who do you think you are, anyway?" the Mandalore asked in amusement.

"Someone who can help the Mandalorian people achieve power throughout the galaxy," Saes said. "With my assistance, Mandalore Fett, you and I can rule alongside one another on Coruscant and bring down the Jedi and their AG."

"Coruscant?" Fett asked. "What, have you been living under a rock your whole life, buddy? Coruscant's not gonna be inhabitable for another few decades or so; by the time Coruscant's been good and cleaned of all that Vong gunk, I'll be good and dead."

"Are you not interested in power, Mandalore Fett?" Saes asked impatiently as he probed Fett's mind through the Force, hoping to influence the Mandalore's decisions.

"I got more power than I want here in my little sector of space, Commander Rrogan," Fett said. "And the Mandalorian people today don't have the same inclination for galactic domination as our ancestors had, as you like to point out. So, you wanna war against the Jedi and the Alliance of the Galaxy? Be my guest, and good luck, but don't drag us into it."

Saes stifled a shout of frustration; Fett's mind was too strong to manipulate to his ends.

"Now get out of my system before I have my fleet blast you," Fett concluded stoically.

"Wait, Fett," Saes said, "what if I paid you and your people to go to war against the Jedi and their government?" The Sith hoped that credits were still a viable form of currency in this time.

"No war is ever worth any amount of credits," Fett said. "At least not under my leadership; we Mandos suffered enough when the Vong invaded, and that was a war that we had to fight. We have no reason to fight the AG or the Jedi, and credits ain't gonna cut it as a reason."

Saes growled. "Then I hope that all of your subordinates hear this, Fett: you're a weak, cowardly old man, unfit to wear the helmet of Mandalore. The Mandalorian people deserve a better leader than you, one who would lead them to victory and greatness over the Jedi and their allies." As he said all of this, he amplified his words out with the Force, hoping that at least some of the pilots of the Mandalorian defensive fleet might heed Saes's words and turn on their stubborn Mandalore.

"I'm not gonna tell you again, Rrogan," Fett intoned. "Turn your ship around, get outta my system, or I have my fleet blast your pathetic ship to stardust."

But just as Fett finished speaking, Saes grinned as he felt the minds of several hundred Mandalorian pilots and crew members aboard the capital ships have their minds swayed by the Sith's words.

"I think you should be the one to fear that, _Mandalore_," Saes said, continuing on from Fett's threat.

And just like that, dozens of Mandalorian starfighters turned on their brethren to blast some of those unaffected by Saes's words into the void of space; meanwhile, the Sith felt, through the Force, dozens of more people dying as affected Mandalorians lethally assaulted their fellow mercenaries under the belief that they were following the whims of a weak and cowardly old man.

From there, Saes simply sat back in his command chair and watched as the Mandalorians launched the opening battle of what the Sith hoped would be a civil war.


	7. Chapter 7

Since her first training session with Master Hamner, Vestara had three more over the course of that week, and while Hamner told her that she was steadily improving in terms of both martial prowess and behavior with each successive session, Vestara still found herself feeling as if she wasn't living up to her new Master's expectations.

Hamner was a stern teacher, though significantly less stern than any of the Masters whom Vestara previously had, like her father or Lady Rhea. But what made training under Hamner's tutelage more difficult than the times she trained back on Kesh as a Sith apprentice was that, now, Vestara was being trained to better restrain her feelings rather than utilizing them to their fullest potential against hypothetical enemies. And that was still something that, for all of Hamner commenting on Vestara's "improvement" in her behavior, she felt as if that improvement was like wading through a knee-deep pool of mud, making each step forward feel agonizingly torturous when it could be so damn easy to take the exact same steps in seconds rather than minutes.

Combine that with the fact that Hamner instructed Vestara to study up on the history of the New Jedi Order, starting from the time that Luke Skywalker established the first Jedi Academy on Yavin 4 to the ascension of Jacen Solo as Grand Master of the Order, and Vestara was feeling none too pleased; at least she was given three weeks to prepare for that history test that Hamner promised.

So as it was now, Vestara was studying quietly, but not peacefully, in the Jedi Temple's library, going through history Holocron after history Holocron, each of which chronicled several major events of the decades that Hamner asked her to study up on. And, as fascinating as most of the history was to her, deep down, Vestara felt incredibly frustrated; sure, she did have a lot of time left to brush up on all this history, but trying to memorize all these names, dates, locations, battles, etc., made her head hurt.

It wasn't as bad on Kesh, Vestara reflected, at least not in the studying area. From the time that she was old enough to speak and stand, her parents raised her to know the basics about the ways of the Lost Tribe of the Sith, which was what helped her to better assimilate the history and culture of her own people into her mind as she underwent the conditioning that the Lost Tribe put her through. Here, however, Vestara felt as if she was out of her element now; she had been brought into this entirely new culture and, as part of her training to be a Jedi, is now essentially forced to familiarize and memorize all of this stuff as she listened to the Holocrons via the earbuds that allowed her to listen to them without disrupting the quiet of the library.

She sat at that desk, listening to yet another Holocron of information - she had lost count at this point - and had just finished listening to the events it chronicled - those being of the first half or so of the Yuuzhan Vong War - before she felt a familiar presence approach her from behind.

Vestara stopped and turned in her seat to find Ben Skywalker standing there. "Hey," he said with an easy smile.

"Hey," she returned with a similarly easy yet slightly nervous smile of her own.

He nodded at the sea of Holocrons that Vestara had assembled on the desk behind her. "I see that you're studying hard, eh?"

Vestara shrugged. "Just part of my training," she replied nonchalantly. "I mean, if I'm gonna be a Jedi, I'm gonna have to know their history, right?"

"Right," Ben returned with another nod. "But I can't help but notice you've been here for an awfully long time."

Vestara raised an eyebrow. "How would you know that?"

"I saw you enter this library about three hours ago while I was passing by," Ben answered. "Did you ever leave since you first entered?"

Vestara shook her head. "No. Just been studying here."

"Well, good for you, I'll say. Ready for a break?"

Vestara opened her mouth, about to say no, when it struck her that she _did_ need a break. "Sounds like a good idea. Just let me put these Holocrons back to their place-"

"Don't worry about that," Ben stated quickly with a slightly upraised hand. "The librarian and his assistants will take care of that."

"Really? Back on Kesh, students were punished for just leaving texts and Holocrons on their desks, or putting them back incorrectly."

"That's not how we do it here," Ben said evenly. "It's the job of the librarian and his assistants to put books and 'crons back to where they belong. The students can go and do as they please in between classes, like lunch, for instance. Care to join me?"

Vestara hesitated. "I'd love to." Then she stood up and allowed Ben to lead her out of the library and toward the Temple's lunch hall.

There, as Ben and Vestara chatted idly over lunch, the latter asked for the former, "So, I hope you don't mind me asking, but where's your mom been lately? I haven't seen her since she and you first brought me here."

Ben looked at Vestara with mild embarrassment. "She's off to the Maw to do some soul-searching."

Vestara was afraid of asking this, but... "Was it because of what happened between her and me while the both of you were bringing me here?"

Ben sighed. "Pretty much, as both my mom and cousin told me."

"Your cousin? Oh, right, Grand Master Solo, I forgot about that."

"Yeah, I get that a lot," Ben replied. "Whenever I bring up my cousin to other people, they tend to momentarily forget that I'm related to the Grand Master of the Order. And, you know, in a way, I'm kinda happy about that."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I mean, it's kinda refreshing to not have people identify you as just relatives to other people who've accomplished great things, where you can kinda be your own person, you know?"

This time, Vestara didn't hesitate to ask, and grinned as she asked, "Is it because everyone identifies you as the son of Luke Skywalker?"

"There ya go," Ben replied with a casually-pointing finger at Vestara. "Of course, you don't really know who Luke Skywalker was aside from what the 'crons tell you; you just know me for me, and I kind of appreciate that."

"Actually, I don't think I really know you all that well, Ben," Vestara said. "Why don't you tell me a little bit more about yourself?"

Ben smiled and gave a small laugh. "You know, Vestara, I wish I could honestly tell you something interesting about myself that wasn't related to the Jedi Order, because all this-" he gave a small wave to their general area "-is pretty much my life. I grew up and lived here on Denon pretty much my whole life, being taught the ways of the Jedi and all that, and I pretty much do everything I can to be the best Jedi I can; I train, I study, I meditate, just like Master Hamner's teaching you to do."

"So you never go out and have fun once in a while?" Vestara asked. "Even on Kesh, where I trained hard to be a Sith, even we had some downtimes where my friends and I can just have fun." Her mood soured slightly at the reminder of the losses of people like Ahri Raas and the others she cared for.

But whether Ben chose to ignore Vestara's slight drop in mood out of respect for giving her some emotional space, or if he just outright didn't notice it even through her more noticeable Force-presence, he didn't acknowledge the former Sith's mood. "Oh, I have some fun once in a while; we have games and stuff. And not just, like, sports games, I'm also talkin' 'bout comp sims, where you get to play as Jedi during the Clone Wars and stuff; hell, you can even play as clones." His eyes widened as if in realization. "Hey? Why don't I take you back to my place so I can show you? It might help you learn a little bit about the Jedi before my dad re-established them."

Vestara shrugged. "I guess it could be interesting." With that, she and Ben finished their lunch, and they went to return to Ben's quarters.

There, they played on co-op mode for a vidsim set in the Clone Wars, in which both Ben and Vestara played as Jango Fett clone troopers that mowed down Trade Federation battle droids with their heavy repeating assault rifles.

"You know, I gotta say, Ben," Vestara said, not taking her eyes away from the game before her, "I'm not getting much in the way of education from this, but this is pretty fun, I'll admit."

Ben chuckled. "Yeah, I figured that you'd like it."

But before they could go on any further in playing the game, Ben and Vestara both stopped as they felt not only a new series of Force-presences enter the Denon system, but also a case of great distress coming from those presences.

Ben and Vestara gave each other a shared worried look before Ben shut off the game. They then rushed out of his quarters and hurried down to the Temple's main living area, where a holographic imager was showing the arrival of several Mandalorian vessels heading toward Denon.

"They don't look like an invasion force," Ben stated aloud. "So what are Mandalorians doing here?"

Not long after the mysterious Mando ships eventually landed on Denon, there came a worldwide broadcasted announcement from the helmeted visage of the legendary Boba Fett himself: "Citizens of the Alliance of the Galaxy, we, the people of Mandalore, need your help; for this galaxy now faces a threat that should concern every single one of you."


	8. Chapter 8

After three days of traveling through the treacherous gravity paths made by the black holes of the Maw Cluster, Mara, piloting the _Jade Shadow_, had finally reached the site of the coordinates that Jacen had given her; and the site of a relative miniature of Centerpoint Station nearly shocked her.

Sure, Jacen had told her that this Sinkhole Station would look like a smaller version of the now-deconstructed Centerpoint, but looking at Sinkhole now, she couldn't help but have an irrational fear that this thing may have the destructive capability as its late relative. Jacen told her that he had inspected this station while he was here during his post-Yuuzhan Vong War sojourn, and he had found no evidence that Sinkhole had any lasers that could so much as destroy a meteorite, let alone an entire solar system.

Nevertheless, Mara couldn't help but carefully pilot the _Shadow_ toward Sinkhole, and already she could feel Force-presences aboard... Force-presences that felt as if they were somehow waning. Again, Jacen had informed Mara of who could be aboard this station: Force-sensitives from different sects around the galaxy, including dropouts and outright flunkies from the Jedi Order itself, who came here to seek total oneness with the Force.

Among them, Jacen had learned to Mind Walk.

Mind Walking, as Jacen told Mara before she departed for the Maw, was the ability to separate one's Force-essence from the body of oneself to enter what was apparently the realm of the Force itself. Many who had come had to Mind Walk would encounter a mysterious being known as Abeloth, who every Mind Walker, including Jacen, thought to be a manifestation of both the desires and fears of an individual Mind Walker; to resist the temptations and/or horrors provided by Abeloth was believed to be the achievement of oneness with the Force.

Many Mind Walkers had fallen to whatever Abeloth provided to their essences; those who survived would gain the ability to encounter other Mind Walkers, whether they were in the spirit or mortal realm, and tell them whether or not they would choose to stay in the mortal realm or choose to depart from their bodies entirely and be one with the Force. Obviously, Jacen had decided to stay in the mortal realm after he had conquered his own trial provided by Abeloth.

"What trial did she give you?" Mara asked her nephew once he had concluded explaining what Mind Walking consisted of.

"My worst fear," Jacen answered. "That I would become a monster, who believed in the dark side of the Force and that it was the only path to guide the galaxy into salvation, even if it meant that I would have to lose everyone and everything I cared about."

Returning herself to the present, Mara finished the _Shadow_'s landing procedure in Sinkhole Station's hangar bay, which held over a dozen other vessels of various make and design, and soon had her ship cycled down. From there, she disembarked into the hangar bay, finding no one waiting for her, which, upon arriving, didn't surprise her; there was no one to hail her when she dropped out into this system, so why should there be anyone waiting for her now?

_Come_, the essence of a male alien voice said in Mara's mind.

At first, Mara instinctively raised her mental defenses, only to come into contact with that voice again.

_You have nothing to fear here_, the essence returned. _Come_.

Probing the essence, she sensed nothing suspicious or potentially harmful; only idle curiosity and a willingness to teach. So Mara headed in the direction that her Force-senses told her that the voice came from, albeit cautiously, and she decided to take the time to get a bearing on her surroundings.

As she walked down the dilapidated corridors of Sinkhole Station, Mara saw that the entire place looked like it was on the verge of collapse from lack of maintenance, even though there wasn't really so much of a mess to speak of. Again, it was as Jacen had informed her, and he had assured her that in spite of Sinkhole's appearance of needing a fix-up, it was far from being structurally unstable.

Eventually, Mara reached the very heart of Sinkhole: what appeared to be a giant recreational area that lacked anything resembling superfluity, and was all but sparse, like the rest of the station, except for the large number of humans and aliens who were gathered around in various places. They were either sitting cross-legged on the ground or hovering in the air, eyes closed, deep in meditation.

The only being who wasn't in this state, aside from Mara, was an elderly male Gotal who stood only a few meters from the Jedi Master with an expressionless stare.

"Welcome," the Gotal greeted with a tone that reflected his blank expression and with outspread arms. "I am Seek Ryontarr, Organizer of the Mind Walkers. And you are?"

"Jedi Master Mara Jade Skywalker," Mara replied stoically.

"Ah, yes, so you are," Ryontarr said. "I recall you from when I was one of Luke Skywalker's disciples on Yavin Four, long before the Yuuzhan Vong came into the galaxy."

"I do somewhat recall you," Mara admitted. "Didn't you decide to leave the Order?"

Ryontarr nodded. "I believed that the Order was too limiting in its views, that there had to be more to the Force that just the simple concepts of the light and dark sides."

Mara grinned. "Then you should probably come back; the Grand Master is advocating such a view."

Still expressionless, Ryontarr inquired, "Would this Grand Master happen to be Jacen Solo?"

"I see you've met him while he was here," Mara replied cordially.

Ryontarr nodded. "I envy him, in fact. While I was here, Mind Walking and helping others Mind Walk, he was out exploring the rest of the galaxy, searching for new ways to better himself and increase his understanding of the Force. Alas, my place is here, as I've decided long ago; I am here to see to it that those Force-sensitives who wish to seek oneness will achieve it."

"Have you achieved it, Seek?" Mara asked.

"I am still here," Ryontarr replied, "and unlike Jacen Solo, I do not believe that I can achieve it and live."

"But you have conquered Abeloth?"

This time, Ryontarr gave a shake of his head. "When I came across her beyond shadows, she said that my place was in the mortal realm, helping others achieve what I had sought; and only when I finally die will I be able to achieve oneness with the Force."

"Interesting," Mara noted aloud.

"She told me what she could do to those who dwell beyond shadows, when they Mind Walk," Ryontarr explained. "I tell them what would happen; and then, they either resist her temptations or horrors, or succumb to them and die."

"What's the difference between dying and achieving oneness with the Force for you, Seek?" Mara asked.

"Death by Abeloth is one in which you feel yourself robbed of your soul," Ryontarr elaborated. "Oneness with the Force is the ultimate knowledge attained by shedding your mortal coil in peace."

"I see," Mara acknowledged. "Tell me, what brought you here to Sinkhole in the first place? How did you find it?"

"It came about through simple soul-searching," Ryontarr answered. "Through communion with the Force. Through that, I discovered this place; and over time, others came, others like me who had come to truly know what the Force is."

"Okay," Mara said. "One last question, then: how do you get food and water here? I imagine you don't get many supplies out here."

"There is a galley on which one can subsist," Ryontarr stated, as if he were still talking sagaciously about what he did here that regarded the Force. "There, a small station replicates food, water, and other supplies needed for survival. That is how I have lived here for so long."

"Uh-huh," Mara said. "Well, in that case, I'm ready to begin Mind Walking."

"Very well," Ryontarr said stoically.


	9. Chapter 9

Throughout the HoloNet, a message was broadcast from above the world of Mandalore; citizens and government officials from Denon to the outermost reaches of the Alliance of the Galaxy's power watched and listened to what the pretender of the Mandalore title - a hardened-looking light-skinned man with dark hair and a prominent scar running diagonally across his face - had to say.

"Citizens of the Alliance of the Galaxy, and everyone else seeing this broadcast," the un-helmeted Mandalorian said, "I am Belok Rhal, otherwise known as Mandalore the Vindicator. I have overthrown the pretender to the title of Mandalore, Boba Fett, and make no mistake, I _will_ have him hunted down and killed, even if I have to do it myself. And to anyone who is harboring Fett and his loyal flunkies, whether you are Mandalorian or not, I swear, you will be eradicated under the wrath of my vindication.

"As for the rest of the galaxy, you will know the wrath of the Mandalorians; we will take back this galaxy from the decadent, the corrupt, and the weak, and only the strong will survive. Only the strong and those who know that the Mandalorian way is the true way will live to see a better tomorrow for all of the galaxy, just as our ancestors had intended with the Sith millennia ago.

"As of now, the state of Mandalore is at war with the rest of the galaxy and anyone else who will refuse to side under the rule of Mandalore the Vindicator."

And with that, Belok Rhal, Mandalore the Vindicator, waved at his dark-skinned female human broadcaster - who was also an armored Mandalorian - to cut off the signal to the rest of the galaxy.

Aboard his special vessel - a Star Destroyer that he and his team had taken from an Alliance of the Galaxy patrol in the outer reaches of their power about a year earlier - Rhal sat, both content and in anticipation for bringing the rest of the galaxy to its knees, in his command chair. He swiveled the chair around to face his partner, the ancient Kaleesh Sith known as Saes Rrogan, who convinced him that Boba Fett's way of running the state of Mandalore was a stagnate one.

"Very good, Mandalore," Rrogan said to Rhal in a tone of contentment that mirrored the latter's own. "You have a great commanding presence; it will do the people of Mandalore - the _true_ people of Mandalore - a lot of good in the coming conflict. And together, with my help and your influence, the galaxy will be ours at the end of this war."

Rhal nodded. "Yes, it will be ours." He genuinely felt that Rrogan deserved to share power with Mandalore the Vindicator; after all, Rrogan himself garnered so much respect and influence from the likes of Rhal that the latter neither understood why, nor did he care...

Rrogan returned the nod. "I will leave you to gathering up your support. Doubtless, there will be Mandalorians, and some non-Mandalorians as well, who will understand the justification of your cause. Good day to you, Mandalore the Vindicator."

"And good day to you, Lord Rrogan," Rhal replied courteously.

With that, no further words were exchanged between them before Rrogan turned and left the bridge of Rhal's Star Destroyer _Vindicator_.

Once Rrogan finally returned to the bridge of the _Harbinger_, which was now equipped with more modern equipment and technology - something that Rrogan barely noticed upon first inspection - the Sith Lord sat in his chair and relaxed in his own contentment, allowing the Lignan in the _Harbinger_'s cargo bay to give him more and more power.

Prior to Rrogan's former - and now late - Jedi Master Relin Druur causing the _Harbinger_ to jump over five thousand years into the future, the ancient Dreadnaught had scoured the moon of Phaegon III for the precious ore known as Lignan under orders of the now long-dead Naga Sadow; this ore was meant to be a source of ultimate power on the side of the Sith, who would use it against the Jedi and the Old Republic in Sadow's war against them.

And it was this ore, that magnified a Force-user's ability to tap into it, that gave Rrogan the power to influence the minds of Rhal and his loyal Mandalorians into turning against Boba Fett. And in time, those who have not fallen under the spell of Rrogan's enhanced abilities - he could imagine the majority of the Jedi Order being too strong to fall for his influence - would die, and he would be the new Dark Lord of the Sith throughout the galaxy, succeeding where Naga Sadow ultimately failed.

But before Rrogan can muse any further in his contentment, his droid pilot-navigator - RN8 - snapped its Sith superior to his attention.

"Milord, we have a small squadron of ships dropping out of hyperspace," Ornate - as Rrogan liked to nickname the droid - reported. The droid just as quickly concluded its report by spouting out a string of numbers indicating a set of coordinates without missing a beat.

"Bring us to those coordinates," Rrogan commanded Ornate.

The droid obeyed without replying, and had the _Harbinger_ rotated just in time for Rrogan to sense about a dozen or so Force-sensitives - all of which bore the distinctive light side stink of Jedi - drop out into hyperspace; strangely enough, however, even though he could feel them just ahead, he couldn't _see_ them through the _Harbinger_'s forward viewport.

"Milord, I do not detect anything on the sensors," Ornate reported.

But the second Ornate finished that last report, Rrogan saw a series of concussion missiles, which seemed to manifest from out of nowhere, rocketing right toward the _Harbinger_.

"Fire on those missiles!" Rrogan yelled to his gunners.

The gunners - some of whom were either human or some other species - set to work immediately, activating the _Harbinger_'s turbolasers to spray deadly pinpricks of green light toward the incoming concussion missiles. Naturally, the missiles that were struck erupted into powerful explosions that engulfed the missiles that hadn't been struck, causing a substantial shockwave that sent the _Harbinger_ careening back through space.

Nevertheless, the impact of the wave didn't throw anyone from their stations, and once the wave was all but gone, Rrogan commanded the gunners, "Fire ahead!"

"But, Milord!" one of the gunners replied after a moment of hesitation. "There are no targets on any of our computers!"

"Of course there aren't!" Rrogan said as he looked back to the forward viewport. "Our enemies are invisible!"

Indeed, Rrogan's enemies were unseen, for the cloaked Jedi StealthX squadron, led by Jedi Master Saba Sebatyne, had already spread out from their hyperspace dropout points to begin harrying the other vessels in the Mandalorian fleet led by the _Harbinger_. From there, as the ancient Dreadnaught began blindly firing on empty space, projectiles - lasers, concussion missiles, proton torpedoes - began firing from seemingly out of nowhere to pepper the fleet that would dare to wage war with both the Alliance of the Galaxy and the Jedi Order.


	10. Chapter 10

"Don't worry, Chief of State Omas," Jacen said, "as always, if you ever need the Jedi Order, you'll certainly have my support, and I can assure you of the support of other Jedi in the Order."

"That's great to hear, Grand Master Solo," Alliance of the Galaxy Chief of State Cal Omas replied. He was talking with Jacen over a holographic transmission that ran between their respective offices, over which there was one other person on another end, Boba Fett, now going by Mandalore the Exile.

"You may want to ask Master Solo to get involved right now, Chief Omas," Fett interjected. "I believe that the reason that Rhal and his flunkies turned on me was because they've been manipulated by a Force-sensitive."

"What makes you think that?" Jacen asked. "Did you come into contact with anyone before the treachery occurred?"

"I did," Fett confirmed. "He identified himself as Commander Saes Rrogan. He was in charge of this strange-looking Dreadnaught."

Jacen widened his eyes in shock at what he heard. "Saes Rrogan is a Sith Lord from over five thousand years ago that I sent one of my Jedi Masters to hunt down."

"An ancient Sith?" Fett asked. "How is that possible?"

"I'll explain later," Jacen said hurriedly. "Right now, I'll have to contact the Master whom I sent to hunt down Rrogan. I'll talk to the both of you later. May the Force be with the both of you, Chief Omas, Mandalore Fett."

They both offered silent nods of farewell before Jacen shut off the communication before sending out a signal to contact Master Saba Sebatyne.

Jacen waited a while before finally giving up when Saba didn't answer. He then reached out to her through the Force, only to recoil when he felt that she, along with the other members of her Wild Knights squadron, were in a mix of great distress and excitement, as if they were in the heat of combat.

From there, Jacen took to dialing Omas and Fett's comm signals again, and they responded instantly.

"Chief Omas," Jacen said without preamble, "I'll gather up all the Jedi I can to aid the AG military against Saes Rrogan and Belok Rhal."

.

After a long period of travel from Fhost, Seer and Soldier had finally reached the point that the former had been guiding herself and the only other remaining Jedi-Sith clone.

Here, they had arrived in a system that was surrounded by colorful nebulous gas, and dead ahead, miles away from the medical shuttle that the surviving clones stole - and at a habitable distance away from the system's dying dwarf star - was a tube-like, grey space station. It had no remarkable external features, aside from the sturdy-looking tether that seemingly anchored the station to the hollowed-out, rocky planet beneath it.

Sitting in the passenger seat next to the piloting Soldier, Seer's eyes lit up with excitement at the site before her, and pointed at the space station like an excited child ready to get the toy that she always wanted.

"There it is!" she practically shouted. "There it is." Seer then sat back and closed her eyes, as if soaking in pure bliss. "I can feel her, Soldier. I can feel her telling us to come to her." She then opened her eyes and directed her gaze right the stern-looking Soldier. "Mother is welcoming us home."

But instead of sharing the glee that Seer was experiencing, Soldier's returning gaze was one of restrained malice. "You had better be right about this, Seer," he nearly growled. "We've lost our entire family because of this."

Seer shook her head, though retaining her glowing smile, for she was pitying Soldier for his narrow-mindedness. "When we finally come to Mother, loss will be a thing of the past; we will be part of the Force, but not in death, but in life as no mere mortal could possibly imagine. And all the others: Hunter, Runner, Two-Blade, Scar; they will be with us again. Death will become nothing, and all that we have suffered will be vindicated with bliss that will make us feel as if we have reached paradise... for we will have reached paradise, Soldier."

Soldier sighed doubtfully. "Well, since we made it this far, and we've actually reached this place, I guess there's no other way but ahead."

Seer nodded contentedly, then sat back and closed her eyes in peaceful happiness as Soldier piloted the medical shuttle for the station.

"I don't see any docking bays, or..." Soldier's words to the barely-conscious Seer trailed off when, inexplicably, an aperture large enough to fit the shuttle opened up along the body of the space station. "Never mind," Soldier finished more to himself than to his fellow surviving clone.

Moments later, Soldier had the shuttle landed in a large room that looked like a hangar bay, yet no other ships were present. Nevertheless, Soldier cycled the shuttle down, and then he and Seer unbuckled themselves from their seats before standing up to leave the ship.

Upon stepping down into the hangar bay, Soldier was about to ask Seer where they should go next when the latter pointed to one of the ten doors ahead.

"That way," she said.

And without further comment, the two of them headed in the indicated direction, where the door parted before them without any prompting from either of the clones. From there, Seer continued through the threshold without missing a beat, yearning for the light that would make her know all, while Soldier stepped into unknown darkness.

.

Mere minutes after the medical shuttle stolen by Soldier and Seer entered the space station, a Skipray Blastboat piloted by Jedi Knight Doran Sarkin-Tainer dropped out of the system. Beside him in the copilot seat sat Jedi Master Kyle Katarn, and behind Doran sat his peer, Jaden Korr.

Doran looked at a screen on his ship's instrument console, which had been programmed with the software that provided the signal of the tracking beacon that had been placed by the medical shuttle long before it had been stolen. The authorities on Fhost had graciously given Kyle and the two Knights - as Doran had been the Jedi Knight to arrive with a new Skipray Blastboat, given that the one that Kyle and Jaden had used to track the Jedi-Sith clones in the first place was destroyed back on Fhost because of the clones - that software, and it had brought them here to this system.

"According to the tracking software," Doran said, not looking away from the data provided by the screen, "this is where that medical shuttle should be now." He looked up to the forward viewport.

"I don't sense either of those clones, Master Katarn," Jaden said.

"Neither do I," Doran interjected.

"I sense the absence of their Force-presence," Kyle said. "But if they had died, I'm fairly certain that I'd be able to feel their passing. Then again, I could be wrong." He looked at Doran and nodded. "Bring us to the station, Jedi Sarkin-Tainer."

Doran wordlessly nodded and returned his attention to piloting the Skipray forward. Not long after, an aperture opened up along the station, and Doran landed the ship inside, right next to the stolen medical shuttle.

Moments later, after the Blastboat was cycled down and off, the three Jedi exited the ship and looked around to see if there was any sign as to where the clones of Jaden and Lumiya could have gone.

But before either of them could make a decision, they all shifted their focus to one of the doors leading out of the station's hangar bay, where a great, monstrous roar emitted from.


	11. Chapter 11

Soldier and Seer had been traveling through the dimly-lit, and sometimes outright darkened, metal corridors of the mysterious space station for several hours before finally entering the very center of the station. It was there that the two surviving clones discovered a giant, well-lit circular room with numerous silver, black, and grey wiring and cables with unknown functions all around. And at the center of the room - the center of the center - was a chrome podium with an archaic-looking touchpad.

"There she is, Soldier," Seer said as she pointed at the podium. "There is Mother. She calls to me from the confines of this machine." Without saying anymore, Seer continued on her way for the podium while Soldier stood back to survey what would happen.

And upon touching her right hand to the pad, black cables smashed out from the other end of the screen to wrap themselves up along Seer's arm. All happiness and euphoria instantly evaporated from the female clone's demeanor to be replaced by fear and confusion, further manifested by her manic and panicked screams, as the cables continued to wrap themselves along her arm before eventually engulfing her entire helpless form.

Soldier, meanwhile, had reacted instantly, whipping out and igniting his lightsaber in an attempt to save his fellow clone, only to be stopped as the cables that ran throughout the room all sprang to life and lashed out at him. He cut through them as they came, but they slowed him down long enough so that the cables engulfing themselves onto Seer's form had completed their task just as her fearful screaming was put to an end.

And in the midst of slashing down the incoming cable-tentacles, Soldier sensed that Seer, the last remaining clone, aside from himself, from those damned labs back on that cold nameless moon, had completely disappeared from the Force; she was now dead.

And in her place, turning toward the embattled Soldier, was a hideous, metallic entity with starry pinpricks for eyes and silvery teeth that were as sharp as fangs.

From her, Soldier sensed such tremendous, incredible power in the Force; power that he knew that he wouldn't be able to combat, even without all of the cable-tentacles attacking him. So he gave one final slash to the next round of cables that attacked him before turning and rushing out of the room, hurrying to make it back to the stolen medical shuttle in the space station's hangar bay; and without missing a beat, the metallic entity that had engulfed Seer gave chase.

Later, after the three Jedi had finally arrived aboard the station, Soldier Force-burst through the hangar bay door from which he and Seer once passed through as the metallic entity continued to chase him; but so close, yet so far, his exhaustion was easily overcome by the entity, who wrapped a cable around his leg and pulled him inward.

Being dragged along the rusty deck of the hangar bay, Soldier turned to his back and tried to slash at the cable-tentacle that was pulling him inward, only for another living cable to knock the laser sword from his hand.

Then, once Soldier was face-to-face with the entity - his face contorted into one of pure terror, the entity's contorted into one of pure malicious happiness - the latter said, "Do not fear. Mother is here to free you from this bounding life."

The next thing that Soldier knew, a cable-tentacle inserted itself through his mouth and began to drain the Force-energy from his very body.

.

As Jaden, Kyle, and Doran all watched the mysterious metallic entity drain the life out of Jaden's clone, Kyle turned to the Jedi Knights and said, "Get back into the ship! We gotta get outta here! I'll distract it while you get the Blastboat going!"

All three of them knowing that they wouldn't be able to save Jaden's clone in time from whatever that thing was, Jaden and Doran nodded at Kyle and turned to the still-open boarding ramp and rushed inside.

Kyle then returned his attention to the entity just as it finished up sucking the life out of Jaden's clone before it threw the corpse off to the side. It then looked back at Kyle with the same malicious grin it gave to the clone before killing him.

The entity gave Kyle enough time to detach his lightsaber from his belt and ignite it before taking hold of all the power conduits, cables, and wires that ran throughout the space station through the Force and lashing them down toward the Jedi Master. Kyle managed to roll off and away from the initial onslaught, and then swiped his blade through a few cables that came too close to him. He then sprinted away from the Blastboat, all the while slashing his glowing blade out to cut down the improvised weapons that the entity was trying to kill or capture him with.

Only when the engines of the Skipray Blastboat that had brought the three Jedi here started up did the entity turn its attention away from Kyle. The ship rose up off the deck and, with Doran piloting and Jaden manning the forward laser turret, began firing away at the entity itself, peppering its metallic form with giant pricks of red light.

But instead of obliterating it, the lasers only brought the entity stumbling back, as if it were being barraged by smashballs instead of superheated points of light that would make brief fireballs out of entire starships. Nevertheless, it was enough of a distraction for Kyle to cease his confrontation against the living conduits, wires, and cables that were now hanging dormant in the air, what with their mysterious user being bombarded by lasers, so that he could put on a burst of Force-speed for the Blastboat.

Upon reaching it in less than two seconds, he leaped onto the boarding ramp and continued to hurry on inside while the ramp began closing up, as Jaden and Doran already sensed that the Jedi Masters was aboard.

Doran then turned the ship away from the entity and Jaden fired several lasers for the closed door that had allowed the Blastboat inside. The wall ahead was thus blasted apart, resulting in decompression as air was blown out into space.

But just as Doran took advantage of the destruction to fly out, the entity allowed the blowing air to take it to the rear of the Blastboat, going over the vessel's flaring exhausts so that it - now absent of any of the cables, wires, or conduits that it used to its advantage - could dig its talon-like fingers into the ship's hull.

However, the three Jedi inside could all but sense its presence just above and behind.

"I'll take care of it," Kyle said as he stood behind and between the two Jedi Knights. He then swiftly turned and unleashed a suitable Force-wave that sent the entity flying off the craft and back toward the space station.

"Turn the ship around," Kyle ordered Doran.

The latter Knight complied, and at the Jedi Master's next order, he flew the ship ahead to ram its bow against the floating metallic entity, sending it further back to the hole in the space station. Its inertia carried it against the continued decompression of the hangar bay.

"Now fire a proton torp at that tether!" Kyle commanded Jaden, pointing at the giant, thick cord that connected the station to the barren planet below.

Jaden shifted his attention from the laser turret control to the proton torpedo control, unleashing one of the ship's latter projectiles toward the station's tether to the planet just as the metallic entity flew out from the hole again; but thanks to another laser strike, courtesy of Jaden's targeting, it flew back into the hole again, and just in time for the torpedo to hit and detonate at its selected spot on the tether.

And in an instant, the tether broke in two, and the station began tumbling toward the barren planet below. Doran stabilized the Blastboat's trajectory so that he and the other two Jedi could watch as the station landed on the planet, with a resounding explosion that could be seen from orbit.

And all three Jedi breathed a collective sigh of relief as they felt the entity's presence in the Force vanish away.

"Well," Kyle commented, "I guess that's that. Let's go home."

Doran and Jaden shared a nod with the Jedi Master as Doran turned the ship away from the dead planet to plot a hyperspace course back to Denon. Once they were in the blue, streaked tunnel of hyperspace, Doran and Jaden collapsed back into their seats while Kyle turned and headed to one of the ship's galley.

Unbeknownst to any of the three Jedi, however, the entity that had died back on that planet was not truly dead; for in latching onto the hull of the Skipray before Kyle blew it off, the entity that identified itself as Mother left enough residue of its own Force-presence within those claw marks so that its chance of life would continue. Like seeds, they would grow around the presences of any and all Force-sensitives that would be around the Blastboat, just as water and sunlight help grow a healthy plant; and they did so right now upon Kyle, Jaden, and Doran's own power so incrementally that none of them had any hope of noticing until it was too late.

And when that day happens, the entity known as Mother - formerly known by another name that she had long forgotten - would be reborn, and she would rejoin with her sister.


End file.
